March 3 – A new autobiography from a woman who spent time in the Keys brings to light some fascinating information about this country’s history.
Crystina Bass, author of Seen and Now Heard: An American Girl, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM to talk about her book.
Seen and Now Heard: An American Girl is a researched autobiography of Bass, a Cuban American.
Bass’s father was a CIA operative and her book talks about the CIA involvement with the JFK assassination.
Bass said, “I actually had to do the interview at my age in high school when you get to government class, they ask you everybody knows where your parents were when JFK was murdered and the assignment was, go interview your parents and this is how I came to find out where my father was at the time JFK was assassinated.”
This was the first time Bass discovered her father’s history.
She said, “If your father’s a baker or a policeman, that’s your norm. My father was a CIA asset. That was normal. I knew what he did as I could comprehend it at the ages growing up. This was not an assignment that I wanted because as a CIA asset and as a human immigrant, Kennedy was not a fan in our house.”
Kennedy did not make friends with Cubans, as anyone who knows history or lived at the time can attest.
Bass said, “We had the Bay of Pigs invasion, that was also a CIA operation and last minute as the Cubans were landing in the Bay of Pigs, Kennedy decided not to provide the air support, leading several people to their deaths, people were imprisoned and the Cuban community say it as the Bay of Pigs betrayal. That’s what it’s referred to in the Cuban community as the Bay of Pigs betrayal, so that made it pretty bad.”
Bass’s father was ordered to be at a specific place in time, all day long, so there was a public alibi on the day of the assassination.
Bass said, “That specific place was No Name Pub on No Name Key. When he arrived, he opened the door and there was a who’s who of CIA assets sitting in that room. They didn’t know what was going on. They just knew once they walked in there and saw what was going on, they were there for a public alibi. They did not realize what it was until it came over the radio station that he had been assassinated. Then there was a toast that was called and it said Salud, the bastard’s dead, they all drank, put their glasses down and they left.”
So it would certainly seem the CIA had a hand in Kennedy’s assassination.
Bass said, “It was collusion on multiple levels with multiple government entities and other private factions.”
It also included Lee Harvey Oswald.
Bass’s father was at home when Oswald was assassinated. She said, “He watched it on TV. Then he took my mom, left. He was gone for a few days at the safe house there in Marathon. What was discussed, what was not discussed, I’m unaware of, but it was an actual hit that the American public did witness.”
Bass’s father had some knowledge of all of this.
She explained, “Direct knowledge that he (Kennedy) was going to be assassinated on that day? He did not know. Not until it came over the radio and as far as Lee Harvey Oswald, he did not know that he was going to be assassinated on that day. He just knew that he was not going to make it to trial.”
It’s possible Bass’s father was told what happened later.
She said, “He’s not going to sit there and disclose it completely to myself or to the rest of the family. The only person he would have that conversation with is my grandmother. My mother’s mother and she was also a CIA operative. Her links to the CIA happened when she was in Cuba. She was one of the very first female attorneys in Cuba and she was among the very first that had to leave because she was on Castro’s list to be assassinated.”
The book also discusses Watergate, the Iran Cantra affair and China and what Bass’s father knew.
Bass said, “He’s the one that warned us about China back in the 90s. He was talking about that situation and how that all is going to play out and here it is, it’s playing out now. You have Chinese troops in Cuba. You have Venezuelan troops in Cuba. You have the Chinese investing all throughout the Caribbean, all throughout Central America. We have a Chinese port right here in the Bahamas.”
Bass is working on a book about her grandmother.
Interestingly, Seen and Now Heard was not originally meant to be a book.
Bass said, “I started in 2008 and it was never meant to be published. I did it for my sister who’s 13 years younger. Even though we had the same father, he was at a different stage in life and she had no knowledge of this. So I put it paper and then I started thinking about my children and I started seeing what was going on politically around the world. If someone was going to tell his story, I wanted it told by myself because it can be twisted in any way that they want. So I’m going to control that narrative.”
Having a father in the CIA made for an interesting childhood.
Bass recalled, “You always knew. It’s just as you grew up how much you comprehended about it. When I got to about the age of 12 or 13, it made for very interesting father/daughter conversations. Most father/daughter conversations are boys and what not to do. No, my father was cluing me into a lot of the operations that he had been on in the past, what I had witnessed as I was little.”
For Bass’s book, click here: https://www.amazon.com/Seen-Now-Heard-American-Girl/dp/1087929970